Gaming culture(s) in india: digital play in everyday life

Abstract

"This volume critically analyses the multiple lives of the 'gamer' in India. It explores the 'everyday' of the gaming life from the player's perspective, to not just understand how the games are consumed but also analyses how the gamer influences the products' many (virtual) lives. Using an intensive ethnographic approach and in-depth interviews, this volume, Situates the practice of gaming under a broader umbrella of digital leisure activities and foregrounds the proliferation of gaming as a new media form and cultural artifact; Critically questions the term 'gamer', and the many debates surrounding the gamer tag, to expand on how the gaming identity is constructed and expressed; Details participants' gaming habits, practices and contexts from a cultural perspective and analyses the participants' responses to emerging industry trends, reflections on playing practices and their relationships to friends, communities and networks in gaming-spaces; Examines the offline and online spaces of gaming as sites of contestation between developers of games and the players. A holistic study, covering one of the largest video game bases in the world, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of cultural studies, media and communication studies, science and technology studies, as well as be of great appeal to the general reader"--